Jobless rates jump in Dec., but better than 2011

CHICAGO – Unemployment rates jumped in the Sauk Valley last month, but remained lower than they were a year earlier, according to statistics released Friday by the Illinois Department of Employment Security.

Jobless rate increases from November to December ranged from 1.2 percentage points in Carroll County to 0.7 percentage points in Whiteside and Lee counties.

In those counties, along with Ogle and Bureau counties, the number of people recorded as being part of the labor force dropped slightly, while the number of people unemployed increased.

More than 9,400 people in the Sauk Valley were recorded as unemployed last month.

Local rates all were higher in December than rates for the state (8.6 percent) and nation (7.6 percent).

The news wasn’t all bad, however. Jobless rates in all local counties still were lower in December than they were in December 2011. Ogle County’s jobless rate of 10.5 percent is a full 1.5 percentage points lower than it was a year ago.